Unseen Dundee: Enjoy our stunning images of the City of Discovery through the ages

12:10, 28 Mar 2014

Updated 16:50, 20 Nov 2015

ByScotland Now

TAKE a trip down memory lane and enjoy classic images of Dundee's landmarks and historic moments with our picture gallery of the city over the years.

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An aerial view of Dundee, January 1928.

NO matter where they have been in the world, Dundonians say that the view of their city when returning across the rail bridge is the best in the world.

When he was rector of Dundee University, Stephen Fry said that the city's setting "is probably more extraordinary than any other city in the UK. It is about as ideal - ludicrously ideal - as any setting could be."

The natural setting hasn't changed but the waterfront was once buzzing with activity and trade such as whaling ships, shipbuilding, and the jute industry's gateway with the East. Weaving had been a local skill for centuries, so when the first 20 bales of jute arrived at the docks in 1820, it transformed the city's fortunes. Just over 60 years later in 1883, one million bales arrived to be distributed between more than 100 mills, which employed more than 50,000 people.

Well, it certainly made fortunes for the jute barons, whose philanthropy can be seen in the Caird Hall, Caird Park and Baxter Park among other city landmarks. Working conditions were desperately hard but with so many roles for women, it started a long tradition of feisty working women in Dundee, with many men at home nicknamed "the kettle bilers". The city's jute story is told at the award-winning museum Verdant Works.

Work was plentiful, however, leading to a large amount of Irish immigration, with families settling primarily in the area of Lochee, nicknamed Little Tipperary.

The local team Lochee Harp even play in green and white hoops. With nothing in the way of sectarian trouble, Dundee FC and Dundee United FC are situated in stadiums only 100m apart on the same street.

The raw materials for one of the city's other famous exports came from much closer to home. Jam was made from the soft fruits that have always grown around the fields of Angus, with many working class families decamping to pick berries during the school holidays and buses leaving from the city's housing schemes every morning. Those returning to work with a certain glow were asked if it was a "berry tan".

It was sweetie maker Janet Keiller who made a real discovery in the late eighteenth century when she tried to make something from a batch of bitter oranges that her husband was sold - Keiller's marmalade was born.

American companies such as Timex, NCR and Levi's brought more jobs, but the city lost out on a Ford plant following union problems. The Timex strike of 1993 was an industrial dispute which led to the company pulling out of the city.

The only strikes at publisher DC Thomson would have been on Dennis the Menace's backside with a slipper. The company, famous for being non-union, has produced iconic publications such as The Beano, The Dandy, People's Friend, Commando and Jackie, as well as Oor Wullie and The Broons, and is still a large employer.

Things have become extremely hi-tech in the cartoon world here, with Dundee the centre of the games and digital design industry. Lemmings, Grant Theft Auto and the console versions of Minecraft were all created there.

It's always been a place of invention. The first streetlights, the postage stamp, the ATM and the incandescent light bulb were all seen here first. The city is an important centre for cancer and diabetes research, with Dundee-born Hollywood actor Brian Cox, himself a diabetes sufferer, a supporter of the centre as well as being current rector of Dundee University. That view approaching the city is rapidly changing, as buildings are demolished to make way for the £1bn waterfront regeneration, which includes the V&A Museum, which will sit alongside the RRS Discovery - the old and the new welcoming visitors to the banks of the Tay.